Blogs I Follow

I have a special weakness for teacher blogs, especially pretty ones!  I have bookmarked a LOT on Diigo.  I thought I'd share my Top Five, all worth following on google reader!! Highly recommended. 

The First Grade Parade
Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations
Tales from a K-1 Classroom
Keep Calm and Teach On
Teaching in Flip Flops

If you had to narrow down your favorite teacher sites to five, which five would you choose?  I have chosen mine based on readability and usefulness - these sites are especially good for freebies! Once I have a classroom, my favorites will be more focused on those grades.  I still think it's helpful to look at a variety of grades, though!  What do you think of these sites?

Free Web Resources for Your Classroom

The two resources I am most likely to use in my classroom demonstrate my belief that use of technology should be authentic and should not be for the sake of using technology.

Atlantis Remixed is the carrot cake of education.  Children are eating carrots (addressing standards) while enjoying a scrumptious dessert (having fun playing an interactive game).  There are so many layers of advantages!  Children learn important concepts; teachers address academic standards.  They are enhancing traditional literacy by reading virtual information or by reading “real-world” texts.  They are enhancing new literacies by completing quests and tasks using computer and internet skills.  They use 21^st century thinking!  Students are engaged in authentic inquiry.  But they are also engaged in valuable lessons about global, social, and digital citizenship.

Journey North is another authentic application of academic standards.  Students become active participants in and makers of science.  As a student of education, I strive to eliminate worksheets and it is websites like this that allow me to do just that.  Instead of handing out sheets of paper that depict the sun’s rotation, then ask “application” questions, students can track the sun’s rotation using their own experiences with daylight.  And they can view the experiences of their peers worldwide!  How could they NOT be motivated?  And, of course, they are simultaneously gaining technological literacies!

Are there any drawbacks that you can think of to these two resources?

Ciao!